Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin Is the Only Meaningful Fight for Either Man
WBC middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez dropped to his knees after he dropped Amir Khan unconscious on his back Saturday in Las Vegas. It was a human moment, his concern for a fallen foe touching even the hardest heart.
Canelo hit Khan so flush with a counter right hand in the sixth round that the challenger to his WBC middleweight championship was out before he landed, his head bouncing off the mat with a sickening thud. It was the kind of knockout that wins year-end awards, the kind that usually resonates for days.
Instead, by the time Canelo leapt to his feet to celebrate, Khan was already a distant memory. Canelo—along with everyone else in the sport—had turned his attention ringside, where an unassuming man in a Jordan Brand hat was watching carefully.
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Canelo gestured frantically for Gennady "GGG" Golovkin to step into the ring. The point, Canelo told the press after the fight, was to show the boxing world he wasn't scared of the 160-pound wrecking ball who has knocked out 22 consecutive opponents.
"Not many fighters out there like @Canelo thank you for the opportunity, and all the best for the future champ pic.twitter.com/Gi9XQiP4i8
— Amir Khan (@amirkingkhan) May 8, 2016"
"Look, I'm not in this sport because I'm afraid. People talk, they say this, they say that. I'm not afraid of anybody. I'm willing to fight any time," Canelo told the press after the fight through a translator. "I'm willing to make him an offer. I'd be happy, not just to fight him, but to beat him."
Though his ever-present smile softened his words, Golovkin, who holds the IBF, WBA and interim WBC titles in Canelo's weight class, wasn't impressed with his rival's performance. While praising Khan's heart and skill, he was quick to point out the size differential that caused many to dismiss the fight from the moment it was announced.
"My reaction is...nothing. Congratulations to him. He has [a] big win," Golovkin told RingTVLive after the fight. "I understand, everybody understands, he needs a true middleweight fighter. Amir is a good fighter, but he's not a middleweight fighter. I saw speed, not power. Not a middleweight fighter."
With Canelo's win, the clock starts on making the fight the entire boxing world yearns to see. Golovkin is the mandatory challenger for his championship, giving Canelo just 15 days to let the WBC know what his intentions are. If his next fight isn't with Golovkin, the sanctioning body could strip him of his title and declare Golovkin the champion.
Worse yet for the 25-year-old Mexican superstar, the decision to skirt the man most believe is the top fighter in the division would likely be a damaging blow to his pride. Canelo has made a career of fighting the best, choosing to face both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Erislandy Lara when others in his camp insisted both fights were bad ideas.
Canelo, quite clearly, has a burning desire to be great, to step up and insert himself into the kind of fights that make mere fighters into legends. That so many—including Golovkin's trainer, Abel Sanchez—are suggesting he "doesn't have the balls to fight GGG" clearly bothers the young fighter.
"He can come and touch them if he wants," Canelo said. "And he'll surprise himself."
In the lead-in to the Khan fight, the focus was squarely on a prospective fight with Golovkin. Nearly every question in the presser, including the first and the last, was about GGG. It's clear what the fans, press and even fellow fighters want to see. Even Khan and his trainer, Virgil Hunter, made impassioned pleas for Team Canelo to book the fight.
In the aftermath, especially following Canelo's fiery post-fight speech, the bout seemed closer than ever. At the post-fight press conference, Canelo's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, playfully shouted that Golovkin should keep his phone handy the next day. Canelo vs. Golovkin, he said, was his top priority. Weight, long a sticking point, wouldn't be an issue.
"You heard Canelo after the fight calling out Golovkin," De La Hoya told the press. "He even wanted to fight in [the] ring right now tonight. That’s the fight to make. And tomorrow, I will make the call. I will start negotiating. I really hope that we can come to an agreement."
Let's hope De La Hoya is true to his word. Golovkin has one inflexible negotiating point: He insists the bout takes place at middleweight. Other than that, his team is extraordinarily flexible, willing to fight anywhere, at any time, for a smaller percentage of the purse. He wants the fight, and he's willing to sacrifice for it.
After Mayweather's too little, too late superfight with Manny Pacquiao, De La Hoya was publicly critical of his former foe. In his own career, he faced all comers. He won some and lost some. But he never refused the moment.
Mayweather and Pacquiao didn't have the same respect for the sport. They waited too long, letting minutiae and their pride delay the fight until both were on the brink of retirement. Mayweather in particular has left a legacy that will always have an asterisk next to it. Should Team Canelo balk at fighting GGG, he risks the same fate, despite all the good work he's done to reach such lofty heights.
Fans fear the same thing happening to Golovkin they saw happen to Pacquiao. Already 34 years old, time is likely running out. The boxing world and probably Golovkin himself want to know if he's as great as he appears to be. That can only happen if he's able to step in against a rival worthy of his skills—a rival like Alvarez.
A fight with GGG is a scary proposition. Canelo would likely lose nothing in a spirited encounter of equals. But should he end up staring at the lights the way Khan did, knocked out in devastating fashion, his aura might never quite recover.
That's a chance De La Hoya was willing to take in his own career. Let's hope he allows Canelo an opportunity to build his own legend and do the same.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
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